Hyderabad: The MNJ Cancer Hospital has purchased a radiation machine for Rs 22 crore which cannot be used anywhere in the world. The True Beam Radiation Machine has 5-mm beam and the hospital is permitted upto 2.5-mm beam only. A senior doctor said the machine was brought without the permission of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
“We are allowed to use only a 2.5-mm beam so that the area where the tumour can be targeted properly. In a 5 mm beam the other cells around the tumour get damaged. For this reason, it is not allowed anywhere in the world.”
In January 2013, the hospital submitted proposals to the government to purchase the machine which was specified to have a 2.5-mm beam. It ended up as a white elephant. A senior oncologist said hospital director Dr N. Jaya Latha had set up a committee to find out how the machine was purchased.
Dr D. Shankar Mahadev, head of nuclear medicine and a member of the committee, said in his report: “The urgency to install the machine without the approval of AERB is not understood. There are several administrative lapses in the purchase of the machine, creating further confusion over the intent to buy this machine for the institute.”
Another technical committee is looking into the specifications of the mac-hine which the AERB has insisted be kept aside.
A senior doctor said, “It’s a sheer waste of resources and time as two committees are looking into the purchase of the machine. With 80 per cent of the money paid to the company and the machine lying idle, it is the patie-nts who are suffering."
MNJ doctors have asked health secretary Rajesh Tiwari to punish those responsible for the purchase. Dr Jaya Latha refused to comment.
